Toxic Site: Sure We Can

Recycling Redemption Center|Noa Bartfeld + Christian Smirnow
Official Website | Vimeo

Key Words: Recycling, Plastic, Cans, Canners, Community work, Recycling Redemption, Waste Management, Sustainability, Brooklyn, Bushwick

What is Sure We Can?
“Sure We Can is a non-profit redemption center based in Brooklyn, New York, set up to serve the canning community of New York City. This video tells the story of what life is like as a ‘caner’ and how the organization formed. In New York State and particularly New York City, some who are homeless manage to scrape together a meager living by collecting and redeeming others’ discarded cans and bottles. This work has come to be known as “canning.”

Canning can be so demanding physically, demeaning emotionally, and even logistically complicated that many of New York’s homeless are effectively barred from taking advantage of the opportunity. Sure We Can was founded by a small group of concerned New York City residents, including Eugene Gadsden and Ana Martinez de Luco. The organization not only provides opportunities for the City’s destitute but also encourages their self-dependence and responsibility. Based in Brooklyn, this homeless-friendly redemption center has created a welcoming community. At its very core, Sure We Can is not just for caners. It is the caner community.”

Information
219 McKibbin Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11206
Monday-Friday 7AM — 5PM
Saturday 7AM — 1:30PM
[email protected]
1–347–463–9257
Agustina Besada (Sustainability and Waste Management specialist)
[email protected]

Why is it a potential Toxic Site?
We are approaching the recycling redemption center with two main assumptions about air quality: The people working with the recyclables are exposed to unwashed food and beverage containers that might contain spores and mold and (2) the plastic containers sitting in an open air space, exposed to weathers, might cause fumes and release VOCs that can also be hazards for human health.

Research Objectives and Agenda
Tuesday, September 20th
9:20–11:00 am

AEIOU observation

Interview with two people who work there
Interview Questions

• Do you wear a mask while collecting recyclables? While here at the center?
• Do you know anything about the air quality here and the impact of (dirty) *plastic and metal materials?
• Do you think that this work has a real effect on your health? Have you been struggling with health issues like Asthma?
• Is this a TOXIC SITE?
• Does this place have a good or a bad environmental influence on the * neighborhood?
• Do you consider yourself doing something good for the environment? Do you know any TOXIC SITES in the neighborhood?

What did we learn?
The people working at Sure We Can have never considered that recycling products can have an impact on air quality.

• The people working at Sure We Can have never considered that recycling products can have an impact on air quality.
• The people at Sure We Can do not believe that they are exposed to increased hazards for their health because of the plastics.
• The general voice is rather positive about the environmental impact that the redemption center has, especially because the canners’ work keeps the neighborhood clean.
• The observation techniques did not specifically inform our research regarding the air quality in the space and the immediate neighborhood.
• We were not able to find out more about the air quality of the place or the neighborhood but we were recommended to get in touch with “Mother’s Out Front”, an organization in Bushwick that is concerned with air pollution and the effects on children’s health;
• Virginia Ribot
  Mother’s Out Front — Climate Justice Organizer.
  El Puente Green Light District
  211 South 4th Street
  Brooklyn, NY 11211
  (718) 387–0404
  [email protected]
  www.mothersoutfront.org